Kryten walked from the bunks back to the drive room and checked their position. They were a few hours away from the planet they had taken the stasis pod from, they had figured that whoever or whatever came out of the pod might be able to give them more information about the ship and hopefully they could make more sense of what had happened on board. It had been clear to Kryten that it hadn't been a normal mining ship, their science labs had a lot of questionable procedures in place and while he had managed to pilfer a lot of medical supplies he still felt very uncomfortable about the things he had seen.

"Alert alert" Holly bounced around all the screens on board, "Guys quick. Something just came out of the pod. It's damn fast and headed for the canteen"

"What?" Kryten flicked into panic mode, "It's not due yet! Where are Mister Lister and the Cat?"

"I don't know what has happened; it seems the timer on the pod was slow or fast. I don't know one of the two, either way its out and it is not happy"

"Is it still in the canteen" Kryten asked changing direction and running to fetch a weapon. "Can you see what it is?"

"Yeah, It hasn't stayed still long enough for me to get a good luck, this thing is faster than a bat out of hell. I'm going to seal it in the canteen now" Holly nodded, "I will tell Dave to meet you there pronto!"

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"What the smeg is it?" Lister cried watching as fist shaped lumps appeared in the doors in front of him, "Can it get through the door? That's a big dent".

A loud shriek was heard from the other side of the door, Cat covered his ears in pain. "I don't like this" he cried pitifully, "Its killing my ears, what is it?"

"You aren't going to believe this" Holly was blinking rapidly, "It's a girl, a woman. Bringing up the picture now"

Lister, Kryten and the Cat peered at the screen, the canteen looked like a warzone there wasn't a single table or chair in place. Yet the thing that shocked them the most was the small girl sat in the middle of the carnage. Dressed in army trousers and a white tank top she was covered in cuts and bruises and caked with mud. Two clear white lines fell from her eyes to her chin where her tears had wiped the mud off.

One of her arms was bandaged up haphazardly yet she looked like an ordinary human until she stood up and ripped the juke box from the wall with no difficulty at all and hurled at the door. Lister jumped from shock as a loud bang shook the doors in front of him. All eyes turned back to the screen as she let out a high pitched scream that sent Cat to the floor covering his ears once more. Lister peered at her she was young, say early twenties it was impossible to see her hair colour as she was covered in mud and god knows what else but she looked healthy, tall and slim she was searching around for a way to get out of the room.

"I don't understand, couldn't you smell she was human?" Lister stared at the Cat, "and why is she so strong? She could give Schwarzenegger a run for his money!"

"She doesn't smell human, something isn't right" Cat rubbed his ears some more and winced, "No human can make a noise like that" he grumbled.

"I don't know sir" Kryten stared at the girl pacing up and down the room, "To hazard a guess I would say it has something to do with the science labs on board the other ship, I don't know any way of finding out without speaking to her and she doesn't look in a very mixing mood"

"Shoot it" Cat cried, "Can't we knock her out and tie her up or something, anything to stop her screaming like that again"

"She's not an animal guy, that's a human being in there. I'm going to talk to her"

"Er Mister Lister, I strongly oppose this idea. Look how violent she is, god knows what she's capable of" Kryten tried his best to hold Lister back but as usual he knew he couldn't stop him. "At least stay armed sir"

"Hello" Lister cried through the door, "Hello, listen I am going to open the door now, step backwards and just let me talk to you okay?"

Silence came from the other side of the door; Lister pressed in the door code and cocked his weapon. He might want to find something good on the other side of the door but he wasn't taking any smegging chances. As the door peeled back they all stuck their heads in and stared around the gloomy place, "Holly lights" Kryten asked and stared around in fear as the room illuminated. "Where is she?" Cat asked peering around the door. A noise from the left gave her location away and upon being seen she jumped to her feet and made to run.

"Wait wait" Lister cried slowly lowering his weapon, "Look, just wait. Talk to us, who are you?" Lister noticed how uncomfortable she was, there was something animalistic in her movements, her eyes darted about looking for an escape route yet she remained still, finally locking her eyes upon them stepped forward menacingly towards them.

"I don't know who I am" she looked at a deep wound on her arm and started to pick at it. "I don't remember" her eyes filled with tears and she looked around her in fear again. "All I remember is pain. It hurts"

"Er Ma'am if you would allow me, I would like to clean that wound on your arm" Kryten stepped forward gently. "It will only take a minute."

The girl looked at the wound on her arm in shock once more and stared at through watery eyes. "Who are you?" she stammered allowing Kryten to gently lift her arm up. She barely winced as Kryten pulled a chunk of metal from the wound, "My name is Kryten, and this is Mister Lister and the Cat, we live here you are on Red Dwarf. Permit me to escort you to our medical bay and I can have this cleaned up in a second". The girl visibly softened and almost fell against Kryten with exhaustion as she allowed herself to be led from the canteen.

"Lister! Lister" Rimmer cried running towards them, "Its gone, its open the pod .. " Rimmer skidded to a halt in front of them and stared at the girl, his sudden shout had scared her and within seconds Kryten had been sent flying back towards the canteen doors.

"Woah, Calm calm. Rimmer don't move" Lister cried jumping out of her way, "Its okay, he's one of us. No one is going to hurt you"

The girl panicked, her eyes darting around her once more she turned to run but the Cat jumped in her way, "Calm down little lady, we want to help" he smiled. The girl lifted Cat neatly off his feet and dragged him along the floor with her as she ran.

"Stop" Rimmer cried and tried to move out of her way, however it was clear she wasn't suffering fools and she smashed her tiny fist into Rimmer, Lister winced as he watched Rimmer's head crack against a wall. Rimmer cried out in pain and grabbed his stomach in shock, hold his head in pain and crumple to the floor.

Almost ready to give chase Lister stopped dead in his tracks as she ran at a wall and jumped off it, dropping Cat in a heap on the floor she leapt from wall to wall and completely out of sight.

"Sir, I think we need to get Cat to the medic bay and then proceed to capture her" Kryten lifted Cat in his arms and began walking towards the Medical bay. Lister stared down the corridor after her then turned back to Rimmer and helped support him. "You okay?" he asked.

"What was that?" Rimmer groaned.

"Well that was our new shipmate." Lister grinned, "Pretty cool huh?"

"Cool?" Rimmer croaked, "She's just destroyed all of us in one hit, how can you even consider her as a human, she is a monster"

"What is more concerning is wondering what has happened to her for her to be so full of pain and fear. We need to find her and soon. Come on man"